Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Friday, November 6, 2009

(Dis)Unity Government

Roberto MichelettiBain has unilaterally formed a "National Unity Government" whose conformation he announced at 11:45 PM Tegucigalpa time.

"I am proud tonight to announce that we have finalized the formation of the Government of Unity and Reconciliation within the limit established by the calendar of the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord. This formation is representative of the broad ideological and political spectrum of our country complying strictly with the letter of the accord."

"I repeat my profound thankfulness to the government of the United States, and the members of the OAS for the support they are giving to the objectives of the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord with which we give important steps in the strengthening of our democracy."

Rafael Pineda Ponce said that Micheletti will preside over the new government. Micheletti will present the new government in a national broadcast this morning.

Spain's Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia has called this a flagrant noncompliance with the accord. In their editorial this morning, El Tiempo, called the Accord, "aborted" because it had not passed its first test of installing a government of Unity and Reconciliation.

5 comments:

I think this is showing how weak The Obama s administration is.And it is a slap on the face of the secretary of state and her Historic agreementIt is like the international community endorsement of the Goldstone report albeit all the American efforts to prevent thatIt shows that even a non-entity like Roberto Micheletti Baincan ignore this administration and think that he can outsmart themThis is also very good in my opinion because it will discredit the accord and the gulpistas

Ossama has singled out the only point that could be said to be a positive outcome of this move by Micheletti: it seems self-evident, even with the extreme vagueness of the Accord, that forming a government of "unity and national reconciliation" without the collaboration of the other party in the dispute is not fulfilling the spirit of the accord.

It may fulfill the letter, as Micheletti says: but isn't that part of the overall problem: Micheletti and the coup backers are more interested in appearing to conform to the rule of law than in actually doing so?

But that said: this is very bad news for any hope of avoiding greater conflict; if I were the Presidential candidates I would be extremely unhappy.

And perhaps that is why, as reported in the pro-coup paper El Heraldo, the two major parties did not provide Micheletti any names for his new "unity" cabinet.

A deal to resolve the political crisis in Honduras is "dead", ousted President Manuel Zelaya has said.

He was speaking after interim leader Roberto Micheletti said he was forming a "unity government" without Mr Zelaya's representatives. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8345899.stmMicheletti used the negotiations to stall until the end of October. He is now using the agreementto stall further, So much for reconcilliation. An agreement, like this, will take months to untangle. He has no intention of giving up power and has destroyed the credibility of Honduran institutions in the process. I have no hope of a satisfactory outcome and the blame lies with the US for facilitating this. The money spent on Clinton associates as lobbyists, for the coup, has paid off. Honduras is living up to its Banana Republic description.

It is important that people get the facts straight before writing about other country’s issues.

The implementation of the Guaymura's Accord is being followed step by step by the Verification Commission - made up by representatives from the US, the OAS, Zelaya and Micheletti, (Hilda Solis, Ricardo Lagos, Jorge Reina and Arturo Corrales.) When Zelaya signed it he believed an underhanded arrangement had been made with the National Congress, now he realizes they are going to follow the letter of the law, so he does not want to play the game.

According to the Accord yesterday was the the deadline for the formation of the new government. Both Micheletti and Zelaya were to present a list of candidates for the different positions in the new government. The US (including the US embassador, who has been partial to Zelaya) and OAS representatives WENT TO BEG ZELAYA for his list, but he refused to comply. Michelleti, however, presented his candidates. There was no choice but to form the new government with the names available candidates.

And people who purport to understand what is happening in Honduras shouldn't try to claim that simply being in the country gives them greater knowledge. All you are doing here is making up a post-hoc justification for your position.

The US State Department has officially stated that the unilateral declaration of a "unity" government by Micheletti is not a good faith completion of the terms of the Accord.

You can make up procedures all you want. There was no such process outlined in the Accord; and while there was a completely unrealistic deadline of yesterday for the assembly of the government, most international observers thought that would follow the decision by the Honduran Congress on restoral.

There may or may not have been a side conversation that led Zelaya to think the Congress will vote to restore him. That is irrelevant. What is relevant is